Rate My Professor Samuel Muller

Professor Samuel Muller serves as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Professor of Statistics at Macquarie University. He earned his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Bern in 2002, with a thesis titled "Endpoint, Tail Index, and Support Estimation in Extreme Value Theory," and a Diploma (equivalent to MSc) in Statistics and Insurance Mathematics in 1998, focusing on "The Robustness of the Friedman Test." His research interests center on developing innovative statistical models for complex, high-dimensional data, including robust variable selection, feature extraction, regularization techniques for prediction accuracy, resampling-based stability measures, and handling outliers or missing data. These methods find applications in bioinformatics, microbiome studies, organ transplantation, neuroscience, and improving population and planetary health outcomes. Muller has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications and secured over $10 million in competitive research funding as chief or associate investigator on projects such as the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence for Better Outcomes in Inflammatory Arthritis and ARC Discovery Project on reliable statistical solutions for modern complex data.

Throughout his career, Muller has held prominent leadership positions, including Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Macquarie University since 2020, President of the International Biometric Society Australasian Region, and member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts from 2019 to 2021. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics and is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. His contributions have been recognized with fellowships including the American Statistical Association (2019), Elected Membership in the International Statistical Institute (2021), and Sigma Xi Honor Society (2024), along with teaching commendations, supervision awards like the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision (2018), and top-cited paper awards from Wiley. Under his leadership, the Faculty has achieved record research performance and undergone significant strategic reforms. Muller has supervised 14 PhD students, 14 postdocs, and many others to completion, fostering the next generation of statisticians.